TH true MILK and the secret of the 'green' technology chain that makes the world admire

‏Mr. Tal Cohen is one of the leading experts from Afimilk - the most famous dairy farming technology company in Israel, who later "joined" the TH Group. After more than 10 years of working together, he is currently the General Director of THMF Company, the unit that operates the TH farm chain across Vietnam.‏

Green heart, top technology

‏On the concrete floor of a large factory, a brown solid substance was spread. It was dehydrated manure, leftover food, and bedding collected from three farms raising tens of thousands of dairy cows about 1 km away, but had been processed.‏

A giant yellow machine hummed to life. It moved slowly, “eating” bits of the mixture from the floor, stirring, adding oxygen, and then “spitting” it back out in tall piles.

This finished product waits for about a week longer to "mature", when it is "ripe and decomposed", it will be brought back to the field. It is organic fertilizer from TH farm's livestock waste - a source of nutrients for all types of soil and nutrition for all types of plants.

Mr. Pham Vinh Son, leader of the unit responsible for handling livestock waste of THMF, just took us around the organic fertilizer processing factory of the TH Dairy Farm Cluster in Nghe An, and proudly said: Although the "source" that flows into the factory is mainly cow manure and leftover food, this "source" has no smell, and this area rarely sees... flies.

The stages of collecting, separating manure and the machines to process them and recycle them into fertilizers are all the most advanced technologies, imported from Germany and Israel.

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We are impressed with the TH Group's applications of science and technology in farms and factories. The acceptance and mastery of leading technologies for development is in line with the current trend. TH's strategy is very large-scale and comes from the correct perception that to develop sustainably, it is necessary to apply science and technology and innovate.

Mr. Huynh Thanh Dat - Minister of Science and Technology

Mr. Son has been working at THMF for 12 years, and the compost mixing machine he is showing us is over 13 years old. At that time, THMF was "willing to spend", invested heavily and systematically, with a long-term vision, buying the machine for nearly 10 billion VND and until now, it is still the largest machine in Vietnam in terms of mixing capacity, creating compost beds, in Vietnam there is no second machine with this capacity: nearly 52 tons/minute.

‏This factory is called by Mr. Son as the "green heart" of the TH Dairy Farm Cluster in Nghe An. It is an important link in the closed-loop production chain of THMF, with two main tasks: creating a completely environmentally friendly new life cycle for waste from the farm, and minimizing methane (CH4) emissions.‏

Ruminants in general, and dairy cows in particular, produce CH4 in their rumen, which is released into the environment through respiration and excretion. Excretions, including feces and urine, if exposed to an anaerobic environment (lack of oxygen) - such as composting, burying, storing in open pits - are a "golden opportunity" for methane gas!

But at THMF, with the most advanced and modern waste treatment technology, fully automatic, constantly updated and applied the latest scientific achievements, combined with operational adjustments in harvesting, processing, mixing feed for cows,... has helped reduce about 70% of that methane emission, Mr. Son confidently affirmed.

Happy Cow - Fresh, clean, healthy glass of milk

TH Group has identified and announced a Sustainable Development Policy consisting of 6 pillars: Nutrition - Health, Environment, Education, People, Community and Animal Welfare. The Group's companies, including THMF, also strictly comply with this Policy.

Dairy cows at TH farm are guaranteed animal welfare, so clean eating - clean drinking - green excretion with the spirit of "Cherishing Mother Nature" is only half the problem. The other half is ensuring the creation of a glass of fresh milk - a glass of clean milk - a glass of healthy milk; a glass of milk from cows that give milk in a truly healthy and happy state.

Mr. Craig Tanner, an international veterinary expert from Totally Vets (New Zealand), is in charge of the health care process for TH true MILK's dairy cows. He described that the activities or behavioral changes of dairy cows are linked to the chip that each cow wears on its leg or collar. Based on the changes obtained from the system, Craig's team will receive warnings about individual cows showing signs of health abnormalities.

‏After having data and information, if dairy cows show signs of illness, they will be cared for according to their physical condition. There is a whole team of veterinarians who do this. Depending on the veterinarian's point of view, cows need to be treated on the spot when they are mildly ill, but in severe cases, they must be taken to a "cow hospital" - where there is a team of specialized staff and facilities, and intensive treatment.

‏"We can tell when a cow is really happy and healthy. We not only take care of the physical aspects, but also the emotional aspects of each individual cow. They can't speak a language like we can, but they have their own symbols instead of words," said Mr. Craig.

‏Technical Director of TH Dairy Food Joint Stock Company, Mr. Gilad Efrat came to Vietnam in 2010 and has been working at the farm cluster for the past 13 years. He told us about the special milking process.‏

‏"Our fully automated milking process is different from traditional milking, such as sterilization before milking, and always ensures the cow is comfortable in the milking booth. We can control the quality of every drop of milk expressed with special sensors. The measuring system ensures the quality of milk, thereby ensuring food safety and hygiene for users."

‏One of the most common diseases in dairy cows is mastitis. Milk from such cows is at a very high risk of being contaminated. With a herd of nearly 70,000 dairy cows, of which nearly half are lactating cows, it is impossible to control the disease in 100% of the individuals by manual inspection alone!‏

Afifarm technology is the world's most modern technology for dairy cow management developed by SAE Afimilk Company (Israel). Afifarm can detect cow health problems at an early stage through the AfiTag chip. For example, AfiTag can detect mastitis in a dairy cow 4 days in advance. And when a "cow" is on the milking rack, the Afifarm system still does one more step: detecting which individual shows signs of illness, the milking machine will automatically "refuse".

‏The milking process is closed and automatic from the time of milking to the finished product packaging. Milk is automatically checked for quality, transferred through an automatic cold pipe system, flows through an intermediate tank, through a special filter, then cooled below 4 degrees Celsius, transferred to a refrigerated tanker to go directly to the processing plant.

In 2020, the World Records Union certified the TH Dairy Farm Cluster in Nghe An as the "World's largest closed high-tech dairy farming and processing cluster".

‏Five years earlier, the ceremony to award the Asian record certificate to TH's farm cluster was reported in detail by Tien Phong Newspaper. Dr. Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury, General Director of the Asian Record Organization, came directly to the TH Farm Cluster in Nghe An to award this certificate.

He said:

"5Five years ago, Vietnam's dairy farming industry had never been mentioned on the world dairy farming map until the birth of a concentrated industrial-scale dairy farm system in Nghe An, where today I have the honor to stand on the podium and present the Record "Asia's largest concentrated high-tech dairy farm cluster" to you.‏

‏To achieve this record, TH had to compete with many dairy farms, especially farms in countries such as China, Mongolia, India, Middle Eastern countries... You are the pride of Vietnam and of the dairy farming and agriculture industry in Asia...".‏

Very expensive but still do it

‏Mr. Tal Cohen is one of the leading experts from Afimilk - the most famous dairy farming technology company in Israel. Having worked with TH for more than 10 years, Tal Cohen is currently the General Director of THMF, the unit that operates the TH farm chain across Vietnam.‏

‏- Having worked at TH for more than 10 years, with a lot of experience and knowledge about dairy farming in other countries around the world before. According to your observation, what is the reason that TH is determined to develop sustainably right from the beginning of the Dairy Farming and Milk Processing Project?‏

‏Mr. Tal Cohen:Since the beginning of the Project, the Founder - Labor Hero Thai Huong has inspired all employees to "Cherish Mother Nature - She gives us everything". She asked us to apply the world's most advanced technologies in breeding, production and to minimize the harmful effects on the environment.

In fact, TH has systematically and synchronously applied the most modern and advanced end-to-end technologies in the world in concentrated dairy farming and a closed production process "from green pastures to clean glasses of milk".

Overall, up to now, we have had effective methods to protect the environment such as: installing solar power on the roofs of TH farms and factories to provide clean energy; building a factory to process clean bio-fertilizers of international standards from farm waste; treating wastewater...

‏We have made great efforts to create a circular process in Vietnam. In the Vietnamese environment and conditions in Vietnam, we have applied high technology to be able to treat wastewater to meet standards and return it to the environment, and can collect manure from cows to create microbial fertilizer and organic fertilizer to fertilize TH's fields - where we provide food for cows and sell it to other farmers in the Vietnamese market. With this circular process, we almost no longer cause any impact on the environment from waste products created from cows.‏

‏- It is known that THMF and units in TH Group have reduced up to 70% of methane emissions from cows. Are you satisfied with this result?‏

‏Mr. Tal Cohen: No, we are still continuing.

‏We are now in the process of measuring the animals' natural biological impacts from methane as the cows eat or digest it. We are quantifying it so we can measure it and find ways to continue to reduce it.‏

‏In fact, we are using the knowledge and skills from our project with leading companies in the world to research this issue to find solutions that are suitable for our cattle in the Vietnamese environment.‏

Another aspect of sustainable development is the ability to master technology and increase the size of the herd. 14 years ago, there was no such large project in Vietnam with the ambition to produce milk right on Vietnamese soil. TH did it in a short time, producing milk of international standards. TH was successful and then steadily maintained and increased the size of the herd.

In recent years, the TH dairy farm has also succeeded in mastering embryo creation technology, producing purebred high-yielding dairy cows by IVF right in this land, bringing the total dairy herd of the TH Dairy Project nationwide to nearly 70,000 cows. This is another aspect of sustainable development related to biotechnology that TH experts use for the genetics of dairy cows.

If you look at sustainable development, we have been implementing these three aspects continuously and are still doing very well to ensure that the milk meets international standards right here in Vietnam.

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Sustainable development is a commitment that TH Group has consistently pursued throughout its operations. We are determined to preserve and protect the ecological environment and natural diversity, in order to bring the best products from the lands we set foot on.

Labor Hero Thai Huong - Founder, Chairman of the Strategy Council of TH Group

Pursuing sustainable development must be very costly, sir?‏

‏Mr. Tal Cohen:From the beginning, Ms. Thai Huong, TH Group as well as THMF Company determined sustainable development. So the answer about cost is: Yes! Very expensive! But we still do it, and do it synchronously from the beginning.

‏The next plan is that we will share the use of these solutions with farmers, creating the best conditions for them to participate in the path of sustainable development, because after all, the goal of development is still not to affect the environment we live in and our subsequent production process.‏

For example, if TH does not treat the water, it will affect the river water downstream, where other people live and which is also the water source that TH's farms take back to continue production.

‏I think that by investing in infrastructure, technology and drawing on know-how and experience, TH can share and accompany farmers participating in its high-tech production chain. We can increase milk production and also provide better environmental solutions for the locality.‏

‏You can see, TH Group not only operates a farm in Nghe An but is also implementing dairy farming projects in 5-6 other localities across Vietnam. In this aspect, we will also help farmers in other localities in Vietnam, making them a link in TH's production chain to develop together more sustainably.‏

Thanks for sharing!‏